How much should startup CEOs make?

Jun 20, 2010 No Comments by Alexander Muse

More than a decade ago I asked for $145,000 as CEO of the startup I founded. The investors didn’t balk. I would have been embarrassed to ask for more, but I bet I could have asked for more. Ryan Roberts, the Startup Lawyer, suggests that $300,000 is an unreasonable yearly salary for a CEO to request/demand. Comstudy has a report titled, “Compensation & Entrepreneurship Report in IT” that provides compensation details for startup CEOs, here are some of the interesting numbers:

  • Only 33% of startups in later stage funding rounds still have their founding CEO
  • By the second round founding CEOs own 18% of their company
  • Average base salary for founding CEOs is $237,000
  • Average total compensation for founding CEOs is $286,000
  • Average total comp for non-founding CEOs is $339,000
  • Average ownership for non-founding CEOs is 5.46%

Given that the average startup CEO salary is between $286,000 and $339,000 I am not sure $300,000 was that unreasonable.

Startup Advice
Alexander Muse

About the author

I am serial entrepreneur based in Dallas, Texas. I am passionate about my wife, son and daughter. I spend the majority of my time running Big in Japan, the company behind the uber-popular shopping app: ShopSavvy.
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